Whoever wins will have an asterisk by his or her name if he or she is "saved," and rightly so. There's a weird kind of fake integrity to actually counting votes, and if it means Tamyra Gray goes home, then...that's what happens. Suck it, America -- do a better job next time.
But speaking of Tamyra Gray, she couldn't have benefited from this anyway, because it's only good until final five -- whether that means you can be when there are five or only when there are six wasn't clear to me, but whatever. Wouldn't have mattered.
And what's wrong with surprises? I like Jennifer Hudson's story. I like the fact that what it takes to win American Idol isn't the same as what it takes to sell a record; that doesn't bother me. I don't see the failure to keep Chris Daughtry as a failure by the audience; it's just...unpredictability, which isn't a bad thing, right? How is there any such thing as the audience being wrong? It's one of the things I like about this show, and it's kind of like final tribal council in that way. You can vote however you want, and winning is just winning.
Combine that with the fact that it means that Adam Lambert and Danny Gokey are guaranteed to be F2 because they are going to get a free bad week nobody else is going to get, and it seriously sucks. Seriously.
6 comments:
Does it seem to anyone else like eliminating two contestants the next week kind of obviates the point?
...I don't know. It could have been much worse, in terms of the level of interference, but I almost want them to have gone all the way with it, instead of being all equivocal about it.
"Um, hey, guys. This is kind of a stupid idea, but what if we added a judges' save this year? On paper, it would be great, giving the judges the chance to be magnanimous and prevent someone from going home just because of a one-time fan blip, but in practice, it'll result in the contestants using their singouts to beg the judges for a second chance while also creating a situation in which all but one contestant will end up with the indignity of being eliminated twice in a single show."
"Stop right there. You had me at 'stupid idea.'"
The one upside is that now the judges get to rub it in the losers faces that they are in fact going home because they don't feel like saving them. Oh the glorious indignity!
Oh, you're a loser.
Oh wait, maybe not.
Nope, you are. Now sing it Carrie Underwood!
I'm just bitter because the ONLY reason I didn't pick Adam in the pool was that I was convinced he was going to be the "shocking" boot at like Final 6 or so. WTF?
Sarah's right that it could have been much worse, but Linda's right that it wouldn't have saved Tamyra OR Daughtry so WTF (also, the show can keep telling us that people were so shocked and scandalized by Michael Johns's elimination, but I don't buy it).
And Marc is right that it robs us of tearful singouts for the ENTIRE season. And Brian is right that it takes away the Shocking Top 6 Boot. And Vance is right that Carrie Underwood will be singing the Going Home song all season. I like that.
Bad idea as a whole, but at least it's not the judges' choice every week like I feared.
I think it'd be amazing if they just NEVER used it. Week after week of Simon looking indignantly at contestants and saying "No."
Stranger things have happened ...
But I do agree, it could've been worse.
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